


The Price of Betrayal

by geometrix



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Marauders, Marauders era, Marauders' Era, Moony - Freeform, Padfoot - Freeform, Prongs - Freeform, Werewolves, Wormtail - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-17
Updated: 2015-04-17
Packaged: 2018-03-23 10:44:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3765199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/geometrix/pseuds/geometrix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What seemed like a harmless prank on Severus Snape ended up with way more serious consequences for Sirius Black.</p>
<p>//I wrote this because I needed something creative to do after a long week of school</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Price of Betrayal

‘Remus?' 

  
James knocked softly on one of the rotten door frames that lead into the Shrieking Shack. He knew Remus probably wouldn’t hear it, but he figured it was polite to do so anyway. His face was looking tired, and sweaty, flushed pink as if he’d been running. His usually-messy hair was looking particularly unkempt, like he’d been running head first into oncoming wind. Behind him stood Sirius, trying to spy through the door over James’ shoulder. He was more than tall enough to see over him, but right now he didn’t know if that kind of invasion into Remus’ territory was welcome.

  
Sirius looked flushed, like James, but still retained his effortless good looks. His long hair was windswept, and pink shot up his cheeks, but it just looked intentional. He opened his mouth to speak, to say Remus’ name again, but James held up a hand to stop him without even looking at him. Usually Sirius would smirk at their brotherlike behaviour, but this time he just looked down at his feet.

  
James crept forward, trying to see past the door frame into the room. It seemed that every time here came here, it looked even more abused. Scratches littered the wooden walls, and bits of hair hung in the thick, stagnant air, some of it resting delicately on the wooden floor. The bed at the end of the room never had covers on it. They’d been taken off not long after Remus had first started coming here, and that was five years ago. 

  
It was hard to see for the dustiness in the room, but luckily a chunk of light that managed to seep its way in through a gap in the window-boarding fell on something that put James’ mind at ease.

  
Sitting on the bed he could make out the outlines of two of his best friends. Remus’ thin, hunched figure sat, his arms curled around his knees, and a blanket wrapped around him. James could hear the gentle crack as he took a bite of, what was presumably, chocolate. 

  
Next to him was the slightly less thin form of Peter. James suddenly felt a pang of gratitude that Peter had remembered to come on time, and at the same time, felt guilty that he and Sirius hadn’t. Usually the three of them would make their way down together at around 5am, but James and Sirius had overslept, and it was 6.30 now. 

  
Peter smiled up at James, but wasn’t entirely sure that he could see him through the dust in the air. As James moved closer, he saw that Peter had brought with him a change of clothes for Remus, stashes of his favourite Honeydukes chocolate, tissues with which to wipe himself down, and the blanket that Remus had tight around him. 

  
'Thanks, Peter,’ James said, a gush of warmth in his voice. He was so happy Peter had brought all of Remus’ stuff; James and Sirius had been in such a rush that they hadn’t even thought about grabbing everything he needed. Usually James was good with that sort of thing, but after last night, too much had been on his mind.

  
He was alarmed, however, to see that Remus was shaking, and not even just a tiny bit. Usually he’d be tired, and in a bad mood, and a little.. less human, after he transformed back into his human body, but shaking didn’t tend to be part of the agenda.

  
'What’s going on?’ James said softly, but urgently, kneeling beside the bed, and putting his hand on where he guessed was Remus’ knee, reaching over Peter. His question had been open, but he was more expecting an answer from Peter, since Remus didn’t look to be in a fit state to talk. 

  
Peter opened his mouth to speak, placing the rest of Remus’ unwanted chocolate down on the pile of clothes next to James. 'I don’t know,’ he said. 'He hasn’t told me -’

  
'Get out.’

  
Peter snapped his mouth shut in confusion, and turned to Remus, who’d been the one to speak. James did the same, and both were surprised to see him lookng directly at Sirius, who had taken a few steps into the room.

  
'Wait, Remus,’ James said softly. 'What’s Sirius done? He always comes down here with us! It’s just Sirius, man.’ Sometimes Remus struggled to get back into a human state of mind, and needed reminding the differences between reality and not. 

  
But Remus seemed to be aware of all of that. 

  
'No. You know why. He knows why. Get  _out_ , Sirius. Get  _away_  from me!’ He was glowering at Sirius now, his voice strong and assertive, his teeth bared [although as a human it had much less of an effect than it did when he was a wolf]. He was shaking even more than he had been now, and was struggling to keep hold of his blanket around him.

  
James turned to Sirius, who was looking hurt and confused, but it was clear that both of them knew why Remus wanted him to get out. Peter, it seemed, was the only one who didn’t know. 

  
'I’ll take him out, Remus,’ James said, jumping to his feet, and dragging Sirius by his arm straight out the door. He didn’t even turn to look at him as he pulled him all the way through the secret passageway, leaving Remus and Peter behind in the Shack. He didn’t even ask Sirius to help him out with the knot on the Willow when they got to the end, opting rather to throw a heavy-looking rock at it. 

  
Once they were out in the open, James pulled Sirius round the back of the tree, just out of view of the castle. The morning sky was still grimy and dark, but it was lightening fast as the morning crept into existence. 

  
'Do you get it now?’ James hissed harshly at Sirius, finally facing him. He wiped his sweaty brow with his face, causing the hair over it to stick up in random directions. 'This is what I said last night, Sirius, this is what I fucking said!’

  
Sirius knew he could argue back, but he also knew that James was right.

  
Last night had been stupid. So, so stupid, and Sirius hated himself for it.

  
He hated himself because he knew that at the time, he’d found it funny. He hadn’t thought about how things would play out, he hadn’t thought about what Remus would think and feel as a result of what Sirius had done. He’d just been too eager to cause pain where he could. It had been such a great opportunity at the time - give Severus the hints and leave him to his own devices. And if he’d gotten seriously hurt, well, it wasn’t as if it was Sirius’ fault, right?

  
But Sirius hadn’t even stopped for one, stupid fucking second to think that just because it wouldn’t have been his fault, doesn’t mean it wouldn’t have been someone’s. And that someone would have been Remus. Maybe it was because Sirius was so set on convincing Remus that he wasn’t the monster he turned into every month that he’d missed out on that detail, but it didn’t matter, because the damage was already done.

  
And, thought Sirius quietly to himself, it’s not even that it wouldn’t have been his fault had any serious harm come to Severus. Because it would have been entirely his fault. He was just too good at telling himself otherwise.

  
He was so goddamn lucky that James had been there.

  
'I  _told_  you to just stop and think! I just - I just!’ James could hardly form a coherent sentence because of how mad he was. 'You didn’t even stop to  _think_  about Remus! How fucking stupid are you? How goddamn - how could you even think that?’

  
His hazel eyes drilled into the cold grey ones of Sirius Black. 'I know,’ Sirius said quietly. He knew that at that moment he and James were sharing the same thought: sometimes Sirius really was indistiguishable from his family. And it made him sick. He hated them more than anything. He hated their views, their way of life, their curse-happy train of thought. But sometimes he just behaved in ways that made it so obvious that he was one of them, which was something he tried so hard to fight.

  
James’ harsh expression relaxed slightly. He was angry at Sirius for the damage he’d inflicted on Remus, but at the same time, he understood that the way Sirius had been raised meant sometimes he just couldn’t help the way he thought. He also remembered that Sirius spent half of his life being constantly criticised, looked down on, abused, and James didn’t want to add to that very painful part of Sirius.

  
'I just wish you’d thought about Remus, Sirius. The guy remembers everything, even after the full moon. All he’s gonna remember now is seeing Snivellus and wanting to kill him. And he’s just gonna see your face there and remember that you put him there.’

  
James ran a hand through his hair. As the sky lit, a breeze brushed past them, and he could feel the sweat on his face, now cold, sticking to him.

  
'I know Remus is going to try his best to understand, but, you.. You betrayed him, Sirius.’ Without moving he turned his eyes back to meet Sirius’. 'That’s gonna be really hard for him to get over.’

  
James didn’t realise it, but with every word he was saying, Sirius’ heart was taking another hit. He wished more than anything he could change the past, or just run back into the Shack and tell Remus how honestly sorry he was. Everything just seemed useless now. What if Remus didn’t want to talk to him again?

  
'Hopefully all this stuff will help,’ Sirius said, quietly though. Usually Sirius enjoyed being loud and cocky, and he didn’t want to be displaying that behaviour at all right now. When he realised that James had no idea what he was talking about, he added, 'Y'know the.. the..’ He looked around quickly, checking no one was around. Not that they would be this early in the morning. 'The Animagus stuff. That stuff. When he realises what we’ve done for him, y'know?’

  
'Yeah, I think that will help. He’s a big softy, mate. There’s literally no way he can stay mad forever.’ James gave Sirius an encouraging shove on his arm. 

  
Sirius smirked, his perfect bone structure highlighting under the morning sun. He looked much less tired and sweaty now, unlike James, who looked even more of a mess. After last night, they’d run after Severus to Dumbledore’s office, screaming threats at him if he told anyone. Severus had caught Dumbledore as he was leaving his office, and with cold satisfaction, snarled the truth about Remus to him. James and Sirius had been relieved to see Dumbledore tell Severus that yes, he already knew, and why was he trying to tell him something he’d been aware of for five years? However, when Severus’ face had fallen, Dumbledore had taken it upon himself to give him a very serious warning not to tell anyone. He’d walked away crestfallen. James and Sirius had hoped to try and explain, or lie, more likely, to Dumbledore what had happened and how Severus had found out, but Dumbledore merely walked past them, an accusing and disappointed look in his eye. Sirius remembered not feeling guilty, because he didn’t care that Severus had nearly died. But now, he saw that he should have felt guilty, because now the person they hated the most knew Remus’ secret.

  
At that point it was really late, and James and Sirius had decided to get a few hours’ sleep before they had to be down in the morning to meet Remus when he changed back. But they’d ended up having an argument in the Gryffindor common room, James screaming in a forceful whisper at Sirius - did he want to become both a murderer and friendless in one night? Was it always his life goal to end up in Azkaban before he turned sixteen, or had he just decided to be spontaneous? Oh, and did he even give a shit that he’d betrayed his best friend, and let his darkest secret slip? Just for some petty fun? At least he, James, knew where the line was to be drawn. Did Sirius have no self control?

  
It had been a messy fight, and emotional. James was good at keeping his emotions in check, and rarely ever felt truly negative emotions towards people, but Sirius, who was used to being the victim of abuse for his entire life, was not so good at controlling how he felt. He was so used to going to James when he needed emotional support, that to have James be the one screaming at him was something very hard to deal with. 

  
It had taken both of them a while to get to sleep, the blood in their veins more pure with anger than magical heritage, pumping hotly around their bodies, keeping them more awake than ever. By the time they both slept, it was the early hours of the morning, and when they’d woken up, they were far too late to have time to be at each other’s throats again. Luckily they’d seen that Peter had already left [had he tried to wake them?], and ran as fast as they could down the grounds to the Whomping Willow, still in the same robes from the previous day, their ties billowing behind them. When they made it to the Willow, they’d both found themselves coated in the sweat and grime from the last twelve hours.

  
'I just,’ Sirius began. 'I don’t want him to think I’m going to make a habit of betraying him, or any of you. It was.. I feel so terrible. I was so stupid, just.. I don’t ever want to betray you three.’ He looked straight into James’ eyes. 'You know me, James, better than anyone, really. You know I’d rather die than betray my friends.’

  
James shifted uncomfortably, unsure what to say. Yes, he knew that Sirius would never make the conscious decision to hurt any of them, but he wasn’t the one in the place to forgive Sirius. 

  
'I suppose you’ll just have to hope that Remus knows that.’

  
James walked away, back towards the entrance to the tree, preparing himself to go down the passageway again. He turned back to Sirius, who was still standing where they had just spoken. 'Well come on!’ he said, waving his arm to beckon Sirius over. 'Before you betray one of us again.’

  
He’d meant it as a joke, but it had hit Sirius a little too hard. Still, he decided not to say anything, and instead silently vowed to himself that he’d never do anything again that would make his friends think he’d betrayed them. Now he knew what that felt like, he knew that he could never let it happen again.

 


End file.
